Freedom and Possibilities
by snoozin81
Summary: ONE SHOT! I wish I could tell you how she fell from the heavens and ended up in my arms, in my bed but I honestly have no idea. She was perfect in all her imperfections


Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi if I did season six would consist of one thing…..Jaylie!

Jay's Point of View

I wish I could tell you how she fell from the heavens and ended up in my arms, in my bed…but I honestly have no idea. She was perfect in all her imperfections. The tiny scars trailing her arms gave off the illusion that she was merely human. I knew better. She was an angel. Even better yet, a fallen angel to great for even the gods to ignore.

Her porcelain skin gave off an unearthly glow as it peeked out from the sheet wrapped around her. It had been soft to the touch, smooth under my rough fingers. I fought the urge to reach out and trace the freckles that littered her skin. As a child I'd loved playing connect the dots following the numbers to form a picture. It had been an escape from the never ending herd of babysitters I'd been forced upon. A high-powered attorney as a father had left me without the parental attention that most children get. I guess the reason I was always getting into trouble was so that he would be forced to get me out.

Her wings came in the form of a tattoo delicately etched at the base of her neck. A butterfly decorated in all the colors of the rainbow. Freedom and possibility, all the things she'd ever wanted and thought she'd never have. It made me think of my mother who had abandoned me at the age of seven. She'd been poised and graceful on the outside. She was the perfect lawyer's wife in the minds of co-workers and clients. To those who knew her, really knew her, she was anything but. The medicine cabinets had been loaded with every kind of pain medicine and antidepressants known to man. She'd spend the daylight hours locked in her bedroom with the curtains drawn and the blankets pulled up over her head. In the quiet of night, she'd wander the floors of the house talking to her self or cry in a corner for no apparent reason. It had been traumatizing to come home from grade two to find her floating in a pool of crimson, her pain seeping through the open wounds she'd drawn across her wrist. The night before, she'd pulled me from a sound sleep to tell me she loved me. That she'd always be with me. But freedom had been more important and her possibilities had run out.

Her halo was hidden under a mass of red waves that splayed out across my arm. It had fallen asleep over an hour ago, but I didn't dare move for fear she'd wake up and realize it had all been a mistake. I was a mistake. I held my breath as she shifted slightly, only releasing it once her breathing settled back to even. I watched each rise and fall of her chest, thankful she hadn't woken up. The last thing I needed was a rush back to reality. Back to the world where I was nothing more than a screw up, a delinquent. If I could have spent the rest of my life curled up in bed with this angel, I would have died a happy man. Unfortunately for me, I'd long ago lost the belief of happy endings. Nothing lasted, nothing was permanent. Everything changed in one way or another.

Not too long ago, I'd had everything. The perfect girlfriend, the perfect best friend, the perfect bad boy image…but a couple of mistakes had destroyed it all. So I wasn't perfect, big deal. I'd taken down the devil only to have him come back and wreak havoc on my life. It seems kind of strange to me that the lunatic could put a chick in the hospital and suffer no consequences while a little prank had gotten me expelled and exiled. Okay, so maybe the lie had been what had gotten me expelled and the devil wasn't the only one who had landed someone in the hospital. But I didn't bring that gun to school and I didn't pull the trigger. Had I known then that the psycho was going to go all Rambo, I definitely would have thought twice about the whole thing. My best friend had run home to mommy and daddy, that perfect girlfriend turned out to be not so perfect and into girls, and the bad boy image didn't hold much ground in the real world.

But it had all gotten me here. It was this moment that made everything worthwhile. It was this moment that made up for the last two years, hell…the last eighteen years. It was Ellie snoring softly beside me that gave me the smallest inkling of hope or maybe it was possibility.

Ellie's Point of View

My eyes drifted open. One glance at the glowing numbers on the alarm clock told me it was too early to be awake. I sighed, rolling over to look at the guy sleeping beside me. I wanted to regret last night but I didn't. He'd been there, a shoulder to cry on, a friend to talk to. I traced my finger across the letters spelling out a name that wasn't mine. We'd been friends once upon a time and now we had nothing in common, except for him.

His chest rose in sync with his breathing. It was a lullaby like my father use to sing to me when I was little. Comforting, despite the fact he couldn't carry a tune. His breathing was raspy, in through his nose and out through his mouth, chaotic kind of like his life. Like my life. I wonder why I hadn't realized it before. How much in common we really had, both outcasts with screwed up histories and unsure futures.

We were an unlikely pair in the eyes of our friends. Friends who would no doubt have a lot to say if or when they found out about last night. I couldn't help but wonder somewhere in the back of my mind if Craig would be jealous. Maybe he wouldn't even care. After all, it was Manny he'd come back for. My graduation day was a day Craig and I were supposed to share together. Instead he'd had his arms around Manny, not so much as a hug or congratulations for me. It's what had led me here to unfamiliar arms.

They'd been strong. Strength, something I'd been looking for and had yet to find, something I'd never possessed. He'd been through a lot the last two years, almost as much as I had. I hadn't been the only one Sean had left behind or the only one that Alex had forgotten in her quest for all things Paige. I'd been too wrapped up in my own drama to see him drowning. Once he was expelled it was out of sight out of mind. I could see it in his face, even as he slept, the desperation for anything tangible, anything real.

I traced my index finger across the line of his lips, full, luscious, softer than I had expected. It had started as an innocent kiss on the cheek like the ones that had reeked of alcohol as a child. A friendly gesture as we attempted to say goodbye, but one kiss had led to another and another and another. And now I was lying beside a nearly complete stranger who I had more in common with than my best of friends.

It seemed strange to me that the person everyone considered evil was the one I was considering my savior at that very moment. It had that dream like feel to it. When you first wake up and the dream is still fresh in your mind like it's happening in the present. If this was indeed a dream, I never wanted to wake up.

I placed a small kiss on the masculine line of his cheek. It was prickly with that early morning stubble. His nose was crooked from one too many fights in the Ravine and he desperately needed a hair cut. He was ruggedly handsome and I could feel myself letting go of all the feelings I'd held for Craig. At the same time, I couldn't help but wonder if it was real or just something I'd made up in my head. When he woke up would it turn out to be one of those flings he was famous for, like with Emma, or Amy, or any number of the Ravine regulars?

His breathing changed and I knew I'd be finding out soon enough whether the future I wasn't all that sure of would contain him or not. I hoped it did, God, I hoped it did. Had I gone off the deep end? Had I completely lost my mind? Had I really fallen for Jay Hogart?


End file.
